By-the-book
event planner Beth Brannigan’s best friend dared her to kiss a cowboy. She
should have said no. Instead, she said please…again and again. If
her brother finds out she’s dating—okay, kissing—okay, sleeping with—one
of his military buddies, he’ll kill her. Assuming he doesn’t kill his friend
first.

Former Army
Ranger Brick Mitchum isn’t a relationship kind of guy. But then he meets Beth
and starts to wonder if maybe it’s time he settled down. She’s mysterious.
Unpredictable. Curvy in every way he needs… And hiding something. He’s just got
to figure out what.

“I know what we should
do. Let’s play truth or dare.”

Crud.

Beth drew back and
adamantly shook her head. “Let’s not.”

“Come on. We could both
use something to lighten things up. So, let’s see…” Her friend’s gaze narrowed
as she tapped a finger on her chin. “I can’t help but feel there’s something
you’re not telling me about the Roadhouse. The fact you knew about the line dancing
has my Spidey sense tingling. So…truth: Did you meet someone there the last
time you were in town?”

Damn. She’d forgotten
about her friend’s astute superpower. “What are you talking about?”

Rachel’s amused, albeit
determined, blue gaze bore deep. “Either tell me the truth about that weekend
or take a dare.”

Double damn.

Beth didn’t do dares.
Ever. She’d always taken the “truth” option of the game during their
adolescence. She couldn’t risk reprimands or hospital bills back then. Not much
had changed. But she wasn’t about to reveal her sexy cowboy weekend, either.
With a lift of her chin, she held Rachel’s gaze. “Dare.”

The bugger’s grin grew
wicked as satisfaction gleamed in her eyes. “I dare you to kiss the next cowboy
who walks through the gate.”

Beth gasped. “I can’t do
that! What if he’s married?” She jumped to her feet and headed to a nearby
trash can to toss her garbage. “Not happening.”

Rachel followed and
shrugged. “You have to. You chose dare. But, I’ll amend it to: you have to kiss
the next single
cowboy who walks through the gate. We’ll watch for wedding rings. And just
because you’re not looking doesn’t mean you can ignore the da…amn.” Her friend
blinked. “Wow, Beth. I almost wish you’d given me the dare. Turn around
and check out your ‘single’ cowboy.”

Without giving her the
chance to protest, Rachel grasped Beth’s shoulders and physically turned her to
face the gate and one hell of a sexy cowboy. Well over six foot of solid muscle
that rippled under a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans hugging lean hips and
thighs, the guy oozed hotness she felt with an invisible wave of heat.

Her throat went dry. It
was…him. The cowboy from two
weeks ago. Seriously? What were the chances he’d walk back into her life at
that exact moment? “Uh…”

“I know, right? And
there’s not a wedding ring in sight. Now go over there and kiss him.” Her
snickering friend pushed her after the hunk striding toward the livestock
section of the fair. “Go on before he gets away. Or is that what you wanted?”

She gulped. Pulled herself
together. The knowing tone in her friend’s voice revealed she expected Beth to
chicken out.

Wrong.

Any other time, yes,
she’d lose the dare. It was childish and irresponsible, and she didn’t have
time for foolish games. But she did have time to help her friend de-stress. Her
friend who was also her client. It was Beth’s duty to put her client at ease.
So, technically, it was her duty to kiss the sexy cowboy whose body she knew as
well as her own.

That was her story and
she was sticking to it.

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

Rachel squealed and
clapped her hands.

Grasping bravado with two
fists, Beth set her shoulders, lifted her chin, and marched after the hot guy
striding away from her down the fairway. So what if she’d decided he was part
of her past? The opportunity was too good to pass up. Things like this never
happened to her.

Zigzagging around
fairgoers, she avoided running into two children wearing a blue coating of
cotton candy, and closed in on her prey. Her confidence rose with each step.
Not only had she received her first ever dare, she was actually in the position
to have the upper hand on the challenge.

A flicker of guilt and a
touch of anxiety mixed with excitement. She pushed them both aside and smiled
when the cowboy suddenly stiffened and came to a halt. It was as if he could
feel her presence as sure as she could feel his. Not wanting Rachel to see the
guy’s expression, Beth didn’t give him a chance to turn around. She slid in
front of him, her anxiety fading at the pleasure curving his mouth into a sexy
grin, dimpling his cheeks.

“Hello, Brick,” she said.

Then she cupped his
deliciously scruffed jaw, pulled his face down, and kissed the ever loving heck
out of him.

Donna Michaels is an award winning, New York Times & USA
Today bestselling author of Romaginative fiction. Her hot, humorous, and
heartwarming stories include cowboys, men in uniform, and some sexy, primal
alphas. With a husband in the military fulltime, and a household of nine, she
never runs out of material to write, and has rightfully earned the nickname
Lucy…and sometimes Ethel. From short to epic, her books entertain readers
across a variety of sub-genres, and one has even being hand drawn into a Japanese
translation. Now, if only she could read it.

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